Super Select – Debby Brehm
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242 – September/October, 2023
By Brittany Vermeer
When Debby Brehm was six years old, she was like most kids. She desperately wanted a horse of her own. After much pleading, Debby’s father made a deal with her. He would buy her a horse on her tenth birthday.
“I got a piece of paper, wrote up a little contract, and made him sign it,” she says. “I took that paper, folded it up, and put it in my dresser drawer. I looked at it all the time until it was tattered and torn, but I never said another word about it until my tenth birthday.”
Since it was a binding contract, and Debby’s father was a man of his word, he bought his daughter her first horse, a black and white Pinto named Major. “He was my first 4-H horse. I was so small that I used to climb up the fence and hop on him,” she says.
Back in the 1960s, you could show in Halter in the morning and riding classes in the afternoon, so that’s exactly what Debby did for most of her childhood. By the 1980s, breed shows were becoming more specialized. Around that time, Debby met a trainer named Denny Hassett who introduced her to a different type of Halter horse. They competed together for 35 years until Denny retired.
When Debby’s son, Garrett, and daughter, Morgan, were born, they also took up the sport. When Morgan started training for all-around with Robin Frid, and Rusty Green for Western Pleasure, a suggestion was made that Debby get a riding horse as well. Ever since that time, she’s been competing in Western Pleasure; and she now trains under the guidance of Casey Willis.
Morgan and Garrett aren’t currently showing because they’re working on developing their careers, but Debby hopes they can return to the show pen in the future. Thankfully, she has the companionship of her three beloved dogs–Barley BooBoo, Cappy, and Pudzi–who accompany her to horse shows when she has the opportunity to drive her RV.
A Lifetime Love of Horses
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242 – September/October, 2023
